I saw a familiar face today as I was watering the flowers and shrubs in our front yard.   
      Our home in Brookline is located on at the end of a small road that terminates at a park and tennis court.  This brings a fair amount of foot traffic by our house each day, especially during the summer.  So, watering the front holly hedge requires looking out for people so as not to inadvertently squirt passer-bys.   Preparing to drench the hollies, I peered over the tops and noticed a small-statured, older gentleman making his way down the sidewalk, bending over to pick up litter as he went.   Something about him seemed oddly familiar.   As his steps drew closer, the profile was unmistakable - it was Michael Dukakis!   I thought to myself, “That man was almost President!  I voted for him!”  I resisted the urge to follow after him and gush these words out loud. 

             Dukakis lost to Bush (Sr) in 1988.  I remember being the only person in my pharmacy school class who voted for him.  My bleeding heart was simply a round peg in a square hole at Auburn University.

            When we moved to Brookline, I had heard from neighbors that Michael Dukakis lived just a few blocks over on Perry Street, and that he could often be seen picking up litter when he was spotted walking in the neighborhood.  Dukakis is indeed what most people think of as the quintessential liberal, committed to the notion of "public service," in perhaps what has become an almost archaic sense.   (Couldn’t we use more of this perspective from politicians today?)

 Dukakis received a lot of flak on a variety of issues during his presidential campaign, from being soft on crime to soft on defense.  Some even say that it was Dukakis’s candidacy that solidified “liberal” as a derogatory term.  However, Michael Dukakis was an effective leader and was voted “Most Effective Governor in the U.S.” by the National Governor's Association in 1986.  He is currently a well-respected professor of political science at Northeastern University.  

If I see him again, picking up litter from my sidewalk on his way through the park, I think I’ll have to tell him that I voted for him 17 years ago.  Perhaps he doesn’t hear that so very often anymore.  Perhaps, especially not from a lone democrat from Alabama.

To learn more about Michael Dukakis, visit:

 http://www.hri.org/hri/dukakis.html

http://www.casdn.neu.edu/~polisci/fac/faculty/duke.htm